Before I get to yet another post of rambling, chaotic notes as I rewatch The Untamed in order to assist the rewrite of my massively long fanfic, I want to talk about what I found at the bookstore on Wednesday. I was dropping in on my way home in order to pick up the remaining four volumes of Thousand Autumns, since the final volume's release date was on Tuesday. (It turns out I was grossly misjudging the novel all those times I turned up my nose at how its first volume's plot was described. It's very different from what I mistook it for, and quite different from the other danmei I've read so far, being wuxia rather than xianxia, and set in a very specific historical period. But I should give it a full post of its own once I've read the other four volumes.) Anyway, I was frustrated in my purposes for the visit (they had volumes 3 and 4, but not volume 2 or 5. Not having 5 isn't a huge problem right away, but volumes 3 and 4 don't do me much good until I've gotten volume 2! 🤣) But what they did have, prominently displayed on a rack facing the entrance from the mall, was....
The official artbook for The Untamed! In official English translation, published by Seven Seas, so it's using all the same names as the translation of the novel. (As in, using the "Impure Realm" translation of the name of the Nie Clan's stronghold, rather than the "Unclean Realm" as seen in the Netflix subtitles. Etc.) I was super-excited to see anything official for The Untamed in stores in English, and obviously I bought a copy straight away, in the hopes of encouraging someone to do a Blu-Ray release with a set of properly translated subtitles. (I'd settle for internal consistency, grammatical accuracy and actually reflecting the nuances of how characters address each other. It wouldn't have to be perfect.) I haven't read too far into the book yet (and I'm trying not to just flip through to look at the pictures 😅) but in addition to pretty pictures, I think it's actually going to be useful to me for working on this massive fanfic that's set in the drama's canon, since it has a section on how they approached the various rules of etiquette for the setting. (Since the novel is in an ahistorical setting, drawing on customs from numerous different time periods separated by many centuries. For a visual medium, they obviously had to draw more concretely.)
Hopefully, enough other fans will pick up a copy that they'll be encouraged to bring out even more translated materials. Because I can never get enough MDZS in my life. 😊
Okay, all that aside, I can get on to my notes on the next episode on the rewatch docket. As always, they will be rambling and chaotic and doubtless incomprehensible to those not familiar with the show.
Ah, this episode starts with one of my favorite moments of the Cloud Recesses study arc: the drinking party! It's wildly modified from the scene in the book, of course, reducing the number of participants from a large (but unspecified number) to just Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang. And it culminates in a Crazy Wei Wuxian Power, one that is particularly problematic in its lack of return appearances:
7) Using a talisman applied to his shoulder, Wei Wuxian is able to force Lan Wangji to obey him. Now, this talisman is not actually unprecedented: one of Xie Lian's former followers (I think it was Mu Qing, but I'm not 100% sure of that) used one on him in a late volume of Heaven Official's Blessing, where it was called a Command Talisman.
The reason this is a problem, of course, is that if Wei Wuxian can use Command Talismans to control someone as OP as Lan Wangji, then why the heck doesn't he use them against other, lesser people later on in the show? When the Command Talisman was used in Heaven Official's Blessing, the narration went into detail about what the talismans could and could not be used for, particularly regarding how they can't be used to make people do anything particularly complex. This accords with how it was used in The Untamed, so I presume the relevant chapter of Heaven Official's Blessing had already been published at the time, so they simply adopted that device from the later novel. (I could be 100% wrong about that, but 🤷🏻♀️) Anyway, you can probably see why this is a problem for later in the show: why did Wei Wuxian never use a Command Talisman against anyone else to force them to do what he wants? Imagine how much less trouble he would have caused between himself and the Jin Clan if he had used a talisman to get the guards to stand down when he went to the Qiongqi Path work camp looking for Wen Ning! And so on. That's why I'm counting it for the Crazy Wei Wuxian Powers tally, since it's something he doesn't have in the novel and which never really makes a return appearance. (There's another crazy power later on that makes one brief return appearance in a CQL-exclusive scene, but then never comes back again when the plot of the novel starts up again, and it's like "uh, wouldn't that skill be useful about now, dude?" Only if he used it in other ways, it could potentially interfere with the plot of the novel, so...)
I don't think I specifically referred to this in the fic, but just in case, gonna write down exactly how it's phrased. "The headband is sacred. No one can touch it except for parents and significant others."
And despite being told this right to his face, Wei Wuxian persists in touching and attempting to touch it. 🤣 Gotta say, though, teenage drunk Lan Wangji in the drama is much more...collected than adult drunk Lan Wangji. Did his tolerance for alcohol actually get worse as he got older? (Or is it just because they didn't have a novel scene to draw on for writing this scene?)
Ah! This exchange!
Wei Wuxian: You have so many rules that are so rigid and pretentious. Women would not marry you. You are going to be alone forever.
Lan Wangji: That's fine.
The look on his face, though! The look in his eyes, it's this defeated sorrow, this "the man I love just told me no one can ever want me" mourning. He really fell fast and hard in this version! (Though it's hard to blame him: live-action Wei Wuxian is a treat for the eyes, and because the script softened up all his rough edges, he's much less obnoxious in the Cloud Recesses study arc than he was in the novel. (After all, in the novel he's only fifteen, whereas in the drama he's more like eighteen or so, and at that age that's an enormous difference.))
And the conversation just turned to parents, and Wei Wuxian accidentally poked Lan Wangji's trauma center regarding his mother (not quite as awfully as he did with Jin Ling sixteen years later, thankfully) and rather than apologize and thereby admit his mistake, he changed the topic to his own lack of parents, talking about how his parents died when he was four. And he seems to think it's surprising that he can't remember them. It's like, uh, actually, most people don't remember anything from before they were five or six. The brain is still changing in such a way that most of the day to day memories are lost/overwritten/whatever. It's only the big things that are seared into the memory from that young. (Though maybe as a teenager such early memories aren't as fully gone yet. I dunno; it's been a very long time since I was a teenager.)
Huh. In the flashback to his one memory with his parents, Wei Wuxian--or rather Wei Ying--is the one in white. His mother is wearing blue (unlike the white specified for her in the book), and his father is wearing black with white and purple highlights. Both his parents' clothes are way too fine for their status as a wandering cultivator and a servant-turned-wandering cultivator. But maybe that's his memory putting them in the kind of nice clothes he's gotten used to in the years since becoming a young master of the Jiang Clan?
Following the flashback, to try and lighten the mood, Wei Wuxian prompts a toast "to us," saying "May we never forget what is worth remembering or remember what is best forgotten."
That's so sweet it makes me want to tear up. I feel like even though Lan Wangji usually doesn't remember what happens while he's drunk, he must have remembered that, and molded his life after Wei Wuxian's death on it, on dedicating himself to remembering every moment he spent with Wei Wuxian. 😭 (On the other hand, he didn't forget things that were best forgotten...)
Now the attacks with the red cracks are being called a "demonic event." And the cracks are still on necks, not cheeks. Why the heck did I think they were on cheeks? Ugh, so much rewriting ahead! (But that's one of many reasons why I never post an unedited fic...)
Hmm, in the discussion between Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren, it sounded like Lan Xichen attached a "-gongzi" to Wei Changze's name. That seems kind of odd, unless the definition I've been given for "gongzi" is not accurate. 🤔 I'm not even sure how to look into that, though...
😰 Lan Qiren was so angry that he interrupted Wei Wuxian before he could finish explaining that Lan Wangji was totally innocent, having been literally forced into drinking.
What is a bastinado? Huh. Fancy word for a stick or cudgel. Gnh. I guess they used a fancy word in the Chinese so they wanted to use a fancy word in English, too? It's always frustrating to me when I encounter a word I genuinely don't know; thankfully, it doesn't happen all that often, but that only makes it worse when it does. 😅
It's surprising to me that they also had Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang beaten in this scene in the drama; in the novel, only Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are punished. (Of course, in the novel, Lan Wangji is in charge of the punishments, and while Wei Wuxian assumes Lan Wangji is being punished for having been forced outside of Cloud Recesses when Wei Wuxian grabbed him and jumped down on the outside of the wall, it's pretty clear to me that he had himself punished for the lust that prevented him from breaking free of Wei Wuxian's arms. That was probably the moment when his crush was permanently shifted into something much more than a mere fancy.) Admittedly, they're given far fewer strokes, but it's still surprising that the Lan Clan would beat the heirs of two of the other Great Clans. Or rather, I think they'd have been much more leery of doing so in the novel than they are here.
That was in the courtyard of the "Elegance Room." I'm not sure what building that is, though? I mean, is it Lan Xichen's house? Lan Qiren's? If it's the former, that's a massive difference from the novel translation of "Wintry Room." But I don't think it is. Maybe it's Lan Qiren's, or maybe it's more of an audience hall? Hmm...maybe there will be more information about what the different buildings are for in the artbook... [EDIT: the art book cleared this up: the Elegance Room is the reception hall.]
Before moving on, I want to address a curious point here that is not really...hmm. It's hard to know how to talk about it. It's about how Lan Wangji talks, but since I can't speak the language, it's hard to understand just how to approach my concept of what I'm hearing, whether or not it's even accurate, and whether or not it's even appropriate to think about trying to reflect it in the fic.
Basically, in the scene where Lan Wangji is expressing his intent to be punished for the rule-breaking that he had no actual choice about taking part in, he is--as far as I can tell--referring to himself in the third person as "Wangji." I don't recall noticing him doing so in any other scene thus far, so it might be a formality thing, or...or...I don't even know what. Hence my confusion, obviously. I guess for now I can only keep an ear out for further incidences of the sort.
Okay, so one of the other things I wanted to look for was any information about Wei Wuxian's parents, especially anything unique to the drama. And Lan Xichen just said that Cangse-sanren was one of his uncle's "classmates." That...um...she was trained by Baoshan-sanren? So when/why would she have been trained at Cloud Recesses? I suppose we're to take it that she took part in the same type of lecture event when she was young, having only recently come down from the immortal's mountain. He goes on to say that his uncle's "behavior was strictly mannered, and your mother... How should I say this? She was just like you." This revelation makes Jiang Cheng sort of snicker and Wei Wuxian clearly has no idea how to take it. Then, after admitting that Lan Qiren was being too hard on Wei Wuxian just now, he walks away a bit and says "Well, let's just say it was difficult for him to keep his beard looking good back then." A line that clearly confuses the entire Lotus Pier trio.
[note, where the subtitle said "your mother" Lan Xichen actually used the name Cangse-sanren]
The beard thing is a line that makes no sense whatsoever until one reads about some of the things MXTX said in interviews about things that didn't make it in the novel. Because somewhere she had said that one thing she had in mind but never found a place for was a story where Lan Qiren's constant rule-following nearly got Jiang Fengmian and Wei Changze killed on a Night Hunt, so in revenge Cangse-sanren shaved off his beard. And then so many years later, Wei Wuxian also shaved off Lan Qiren's beard in vengeance for something or other. Only neither event actually ended up making it into the novel (probably just as well in the latter case, as that would have been very hard for Wei Wuxian to justify), but were evidently well known enough that this allusion to the event was added to the drama, although it sounds like the situation they had in mind may have been a bit different from the one MXTX envisioned. (Among other things, if it was the equivalent of these lectures, Lan Qiren would have been too young to have much of a beard!) Similarly, the list that Wei Wuxian taunts Jiang Cheng with during the drinking party at the start of the episode, the list of what Jiang Cheng is looking for in a woman, that also came from one of the things MXTX said about incidents that didn't make it into the novel. Though in that case the list had ended with cherishing Jin Ling, because it was a list made after Jiang Cheng had no one else in the world but his orphaned nephew. (Not coincidentally, the list basically is describing his sister...)
Hmm, then Wen Qing burns a talisman just by pointing at it as it floats in the air, and that transmits a message to Wen Ruohan, possibly causing text to float in the air before him. (Or that may have been just for the audience's sake. Unclear.) Still don't get a full view of how many puppets there are, because we don't get a full-round view.
Just leaving the picture so I'll have easy access to the image. I may need to consult it to rework the sole scene where I attempted any description of the spot where there's that vent that the Yin Iron piece(s) float above.
His response to her report (which is mostly about the Waterborne Abyss) is "It all makes sense now." Which is super-weird considering in the novel the Waterborne Abyss is there because the Wen Clan drove it down river from their own territory. Anyway, then we return to Wen Qing, who concludes that the Yin Iron is in the water. Unclear if that was her own conclusion or if Wen Ruohan sent her some kind of telepathic reply. (I am in trouble if it is the latter!)
The Cold Springs sequence...makes very little sense now. Wei Wuxian is clearly fully recovered as he skips his way down there, and he doesn't even attempt to take off his clothes until he's fully in the water. Not to mention that Lan Wangji puts his clothes back on without getting out of the water, so they're both standing there fully clothed in ice cold water. And Wei Wuxian carries his sword in with him! Why? It's...it's so bizarre. Funny, and certainly adorable, but bizarre.
Okay, so they get sucked into a strange frozen cavern underneath the springs, as the Yin Iron arc added for the drama really gets going. We're told the guqin attacking on its own because Wei Wuxian isn't a Lan is using the Chord Assassination Technique, but isn't that the thing Lan Wangji will later use to kill the Xuanwu of Slaughter, which is a physical attack using the strings of the guqin themselves to cut flesh and bone alike?
...maybe it's a translation error?
Oh well, who cares? What matters is now we get to everyone's favorite Thing They Added to Highlight the Romance They Weren't Allowed to Mention!
7) On realizing that the rabbits are wearing Lan Clan forehead ribbons to protect them from the guqin's attacks, and that he's being attacked because he hasn't got one, Wei Wuxian asks Lan Wangji to hand over his forehead ribbon. Rather than doing so, Lan Wangji leaps over to his side and uses the ribbon to connect their wrists.
Because of course that's not suggestive. 😉 Particularly coming in the very same episode that specified that only parents and spouses are allowed to touch the ribbon.
Even better in close-up. 😊💕 (Especially the way Lan Wangji's hand is in the "wanting to hold hands pose" and even twitches slightly towards Wei Wuxian's for just a moment...) And as they're walking, Wei Wuxian grins widely looking at the ribbon around his wrist, then looks over at Lan Wangji's profile, clearly both touched and delighted by the gesture. (Whether or not he 100% understands it or yet realizes that he feels the same way is harder to guess...)
Anyway....then Lan Wangji plays Inquiry to find out whose guqin it is, and starts an echo of voices of the five clans rallying to destroy Xue Chonghai and the Yin Iron. Then Lan Yi starts talking to them (before showing up behind them), and I'm going to write down the whole dialog--just like any other dialog about the Yin Iron--because I want to be sure that my use of it in the fic is not wildly discordant with what's in the drama. (Though the drama has distinct internal inconsistencies about it, particularly in terms of how destroyable it is...)
Lan Yi: The Yin Iron is cursed, not worth mentioning.
Oh, change in scene. (Strange time for it...) Ah, because their absence from the Cold Spring has already been noticed. (And has to be seen as worrying considering their boots were left behind!) And we get one of those moments that made Jin Zixuan seem like he's completely and almost psychotically inconstant, because they kept pushing the romance between him and Jiang Yanli before he's supposed to have developed any feelings for her. 😰 Wouldn't bother me if they had just appropriately toned down his behavior in the scenes carried over from the novel, so he wouldn't act so disdainful of her after scenes like this one.
Anyway, back to the cave, Lan Wangji realizes Lan Yi's identity--and even Wei Wuxian knows that she's the only female head the Lan Clan has ever had, and the inventor of the Chord Assassination Technique--but he thought she was long dead, and wonders why. Wei Wuxian suggests it must have something to do with the Yin Iron.
Enh, on second thought, that script is way too long. I'm going to copy it over to a page and leave it as a draft so I can get at it without it being posted on my blog and probably triggering a copyright issue.
Short version is that Lan Yi says that the Yin Iron can never be destroyed or neutralized, only sealed away, and that once the seal was undone, it could never be redone, so all she could do was use literally all her energy to temporarily seal it away. More importantly, in the middle of the conversation, we get the revelation that she was close friends with Baoshan-sanren, who was the first one to mention the Yin Iron to her. Lan Yi had thought--as Wei Wuxian does on hearing the description of what the Yin Iron actually is--that they should be able to control it and turn it to something good, but Baoshan-sanren was against this attempt, and we have a flashback to her confronting Lan Yi about it, and said confrontation is basically identical to all the confrontations Lan Wangji later has with Wei Wuxian, trying to convince him to give up his demonic cultivation.
In other words, though they couldn't use any of the proper words for it, they decided to make Lan Yi and Baoshan-sanren into a couple, or at least into not-quite-lovers-who-never-managed-to-act-on-their-feelings, just as Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were at the time of Wei Wuxian's death. This is actually pretty epic of them. 😊 (Though it'd be better if they could have come out and said it.)
Anyway, in this sequence, we get two good looks at the Yin Iron, both as it was when it was whole in Xue Chonghai's hands, and the single piece of it that Lan Yi has been sealing away. Here's the complete version:
And here's the fragment Lan Yi has been sealing up:
All the other pieces we see over the course of the show look just like the one Lan Yi has. (Unless I am vastly misremembering something.)
Meaning that actually there has to be at least one more piece, because the center is missing. (One of the spin-off movies actually had another piece show up...and it looked just like the others, so even if we take that movie as CQL canon (which I do not because Wen Ning is wildly out of character in it, and has memories of Wei Wuxian saying things that are directly contradicting canon) then there would still be a missing piece!)
Frustratingly, I don't think there's even a good way for me to deal with that in my fic.
*sigh*
Anyway, I probably had more to say, but transcribing all that dialog that I decided not to post after all took me like an hour and now I won't be done with my bath until like 7:30, so I guess I'll have to say anything and everything at some other time!
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